Joma says task force vs Reds won’t work

LUCENA CITY — Exiled communist rebel leader Jose Maria “Joma” Sison has downplayed the government’s plan to create a task force against the insurgency in the country’s 81 provinces.

“It will not work because it is all about killing and swindling people,” Sison, Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder, said in an online interview from Utrecht in the Netherlands Tuesday.

He said President Duterte and his officials “do not solve problems that lead the people to wage revolution.”

“They only know how to intimidate, deceive, and kill suspects with impunity,” he said.

Sison boasted that the revolutionary movement and its allied forces have long been tried and tested in dealing with reactionary officials at the national and local levels.

The CCP founder was reacting to the directive of Interior Secretary Eduardo Año urging provincial governments across the country to create task forces to combat the growth and influence of the New Peoples Army (NPA) rebels and their allied troops.

READ: DILG urges provincial governments to create own task force vs insurgency

Ano’s directive was issued after the creation of a national task group to end armed conflict with the communist insurgency.

The proposed provincial task force aims to harmonize and optimize government efforts and resources at the provincial level to address the root causes of insurgency and attain sustainable peace, he said. /ee

READ: Duterte forms nat’l task force to end local communism